Wayne Pacelle resigns HSUS presidency, succeeded by Kitty Block

Ousted by donor & staff rejection of board vote of confidence

WASHINGTON D.C.––Kitty Block, previously president of the Humane Society of the U.S. subsidiary Humane Society International, on February 2, 2018 ascended to the HSUS presidency.

Block became interim HSUS president following the surprise resignation of 13-year president Wayne Pacelle, less than 24 hours after he had apparently survived a board-funded investigation of sexual harassment allegations against him.

Marc Gunther.(Twitter photo)

Chronicle of Philanthropy

Conducted by the Morgan Lewis law firm, perhaps best known for representing U.S. President Donald Trump, the investigation was begun in December 2017, according to Chronicle of Philanthropy writer Marc Gunther, who made it public on January 25, 2018.

Gunther had in November 2016 flatteringly profiled Pacelle, and Pacelle had acknowledged him for it in his daily blog, but when Gunther looked into the sexual harassment allegations, he told ANIMALS 24-7, the situation was “Worse than I thought it was,” necessitating exposure.

The Dalai Lama interviews Wayne Pacelle for a post-HSUS position as a monk.(HSUS photo)

HSUS board stopped investigation

Morgan Lewis personnel reportedly interviewed 33 witnesses, including three women who issued specific complaints against Pacelle, and found that three other women believed to have complained about sexual harassment had left HSUS after accepting cash settlements and signing non-disclosure agreements.

But the HSUS board stopped the investigation on February 1, 2018, touching off a string of board and staff resignations. At least a dozen donors, whose 2017 contributions amounted to as much as $1 million, indicated before midnight on February 1, 2018 that they would withdraw their support of HSUS pending a leadership regime change.

(Beth Clifton collage)

“We believe the women”

Memes stating “We believe the women” appeared on the social media pages of many current and former HSUS staff, donors, and volunteers.

Reported Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post, who followed the Chronicle of Philanthropy and ANIMALS 24-7 in exposing the allegations against Pacelle, “The announcement of Pacelle’s departure comes one day after the charity’s board voted to retain the chief executive, and two hours after the board chairman [Eric Bernthal] dismissed the allegations against him as lacking ‘credible evidence.’

“In a seven-hour conference call,” Paquette recounted, “board members voted 17-9 with two abstaining,” and three members not taking part, “to retain Pacelle at the helm. Seven board members quit the organization after the vote to protest the decision.”

Pacelle “spoke to the conference call for about 10 minutes,” Paquette said, “describing his achievements and denying the allegations of sexual harassment. Two board members apologized to Pacelle during the call, three people familiar with the matter said.”

(Beth Clifton collage)

“We didn’t hire him to be a choir boy”

Board member and Hollywood, California interior designer Erika Brunson, 83, resigned immediately after Pacelle’s resignation. Defending Pacelle to the last, Brunson had in various media statements called the allegations against him “ridiculous” and “nonsense,” said Pacelle had “done nothing wrong,” told fellow board members that “We didn’t hire him to be a choir boy,” asked “Which red-blooded male hasn’t sexually harassed somebody?”, contended that “Women should be able to take care of themselves,” and asserted that “We’d have no chief executive officers and no executives of American companies if none of them had affairs.”

Some of the other chief executive officers and executives of American companies who resigned from the HSUS board on February 1, 2018, and/or withdrew financial pledges, clearly disagreed. Among the board resignees with high-powered corporate connections were former Altria Group executive Buffy Linehan, former Citi financial group managing director and head of public finance David Brownstein, and Ridgeback Communications chief executive Andrew Weinstein, who had chaired the HSUS board finance committee.

Major donors renouncing support of HSUS included Greenbaum Foundation founder Jim Greenbaum, Oregon investor Nicole Brodeur, and Rachel Perman, director of charitable giving and engagement at the vegetarian food making company Tofurky.

Ahead of the HSUS conference call board meeting, anthropologist Barbara J. King quit the editorial board of the HSUS-sponsored scholarly journal Animal Sentience due, she said, to “issues of sexual harassment endured by women working at HSUS.”

“Betrayal of trust”

Jennifer Fearing, California senior state director for HSUS from 2006 to 2014, and a contracted lobbyist since then, posted to Facebook shortly after the February 1, 2018 conference call among the HSUS board members, “My contract with The Humane Society of the United States expired at midnight last night. I provided confidential written advice to the Board of Directors that appears to have been ignored. I will not work with The HSUS again until there is a complete leadership change.”

Added Fearing in an email to The New York Times, “Closing the investigation feels like a betrayal of trust.”

Nancy Lawson & friend.(Facebook photo)

“Promoted to keep me in my place”

Posted Nancy Lawson, an HSUS employee from 2008 to the end of 2014, rising to the rank of vice president two years before her departure, “I like to choose my words carefully. It’s one of the reasons I was routinely drowned out by louder, deeper, and distinctly baritone voices at my former workplace, where I was promoted to the position of vice president to essentially keep me in my place. Let’s give her more money and status, and maybe she’ll shut up and be a part of the team.

“I didn’t shut up,” Lawson said. “Because that team was often dysfunctional, dismissive, sexist, and abusive. Like so many of my colleagues, I was and remain committed to the cause, committed to the animals, committed to the people who work on their behalf every day, and committed to the organization. But the place was in trouble, and I wanted to help fix it. I wanted the smart, talented people around me to gain more of a voice.

“That goal would prove impossible because, in spite of my own high-level position, I wasn’t even given a seat at the table from the start.”

(Beth Clifton collage)

“Culture of hero worship”

Continued Lawson, “There is subtle harassment and blatant harassment. It all stems from a culture of hero worship that feeds on lack of accountability, and it all combines to take away the power and voices of women. For those women who are speaking up online to say that they advanced in the organization based on their merit and ‘not because I’m pretty,’” Lawson said, that attitude has helped perpetuate these behaviors. Just because you didn’t have the same experience does not mean it didn’t exist. Don’t make the mistake of assuming your experience is representative of the experiences of others. That’s not at all wise or humane.

“To the anti-animal folks who have taken this as an opportunity to capitalize on your inhumane views with glee,” Lawson added, “you are also behaving in a sexist and deplorable manner. Because you are acting at the expense of many, many women––and good men––who have devoted their lives to making the world a better place for all.”

(Beth Clifton collage)

“Dropped HSUS as a client”

Among the men who spoke out was former HSUS vice president for animal protection litigation Jonathan R. Lovvorn, one of the first to post the “I believe the women” meme.

Lovvorn came to HSUS from the Fund for Animals in 2005, after Pacelle brokered the merger of the two organizations. Pacelle was national director for the Fund for Animals, 1989-1994, before jumping to HSUS to spend 10 years as vice president for legislation, prior to becoming president in 2004.

Lovvorn said he had “been on extended leave since August of 2017,” and “dropped HSUS as a client immediately after the board vote” of February 1, 2018.

“Josh Skipworth, the HSUS state director in Iowa, said he initially decided to quit the organization after the board appeared to prioritize Pacelle’s fundraising talents over a toxic workplace environment for women,” but reconsidered after Pacelle resigned, reported Paquette of the Washington Post.

Toni Van Pelt, president of the National Organization of Women.

National Organization of Women

About 80% of the HSUS donor base are women, as are twelve of the top 19 HSUS staff members, nine of the 14 current HSUS corporate officers, and 14 of 20 members of the HSUS National Council advisory board.

Fifteen of the 31 members of the HSUS board of directors were female before the recent resignations. Currently eleven of 23 members of the HSUS board of directors are women.

All of this attracted the notice of National Organization for Women president Toni Van Pelt.

(Beth Clifton collage)

“Fire Wayne Pacelle. Do it NOW.”

“Like Donald Trump, HSUS is engaged in a cover up in plain sight,” Van Pelt charged on February 2, 2018, shortly before Pacelle resigned. “Instead of trying to enable a sexual abuser, they should dismiss him. Instead of making excuses, they should be making reparations. Instead of silencing or attacking women who have suffered abuse, and those who defend them, HSUS should change its own culture.

“HSUS needs to know this,” Van Pelt continued. “Women are watching. We know when a charity deserves our support, and when it fails the most basic obligations of trust. The Humane Society of the U.S. has no humanity. Fire Wayne Pacelle. Do it now.”’

Left: Wayne Pacelle. Right: Eric Bernthal.(Beth Clifton photo)

HSUS board rejected the evidence

Continuing to defend Pacelle, HSUS board chair Eric Bernthal wrote to staff shortly before Pacelle quit that, “The board reviewed the information assembled and determined that there was not sufficient evidence to remove Wayne Pacelle from his position as CEO.

“Many of the allegations were explosive in nature, and reading or hearing about them is a shock to anyone. It was to us, too,” claimed Bernthal. “But when we sifted through the evidence presented, we did not find that many of these allegations were supported by credible evidence.”

Further, Bernthal said, “The board concluded that there was no motivation behind severance agreements to silence women who had spoken up or raised concerns.”

(Beth Clifton collage)

“Going to assess where I go”

Said Pacelle to New York Times writers Julie Bosman, Matt Stevens, and Jonah Engel Bromwich, as the furor over the board decision to retain him intensified, “I’m going to take stock of everyone’s opinion and assess where I go and where the organization goes from here. I think leadership changes at organizations are often very healthy and renewing,” Pacelle hinted, “and I’m going to talk with staff and board members and find the best course that [contributes] to our mission of fighting for all animals.”

“Our mission depends on unity”

“Yesterday,” Pacelle opened, “the HSUS board of directors voted to affirm my continued service as president and CEO. The vote was not unanimous and half a dozen directors [Pacelle undercounted] resigned in its wake. That division among our board members is a cause for concern for the organization.

“Our mission depends on unity,” Pacelle said. “For that reason, I am recommending that the board launch a search for a successor. I am resigning, effective immediately, to allow that process to move forward expeditiously and to put aside any distractions, in the best interests of all parties.”

Who is Kitty Block?

Pacelle in conclusion introduced Kitty Block as his interim successor.

Recited Bernthal, “Ms. Block has served at HSUS since 1992. In 2007 she was promoted to vice president of Humane Society International, later to senior vice president, and last year became president of this affiliate, overseeing all HSI international campaigns and programs. Ms. Block received a law degree from The George Washington University in 1990 and a bachelor’s degree in communications and philosophy from the University of New Hampshire in 1986.”

Neither Pacelle nor Bernthal mentioned, however, that Block made her first mark at HSUS by joining with two other women in filing a 1995 lawsuit accusing then-HSUS vice president of investigations David Wills of sexual harassment and embezzling. Fired by HSUS in November 1995, and convicted of embezzling from HSUS in 1996, Wills responded to the sexual harassment case with a countersuit, leading to an out-of-court settlement on undisclosed terms in 1998.

Kitty Block. (HSUS photo)

Working thereafter in animal use industries, Wills has been facing trial in Texas since 2015, in a repeatedly delayed case, for allegedly trafficking a nine-year-old girl for purposes of sexual exploitation.

“Enablers will have to go”

Said former HSUS executive Marc Paulhus, who had resigned from HSUS in protest of Wills’ conduct, “A capable woman was named as the interim CEO.”

But, Paulhus added, “A good deal of housekeeping remains, and some enablers to unacceptable behavior will have to go.”

Marc Paulhus.(Facebook photo)

“Will be cleaning up mess for years”

Concluded Humane Farming Association founder Brad Miller, who had clashed with Pacelle throughout his HSUS tenure, “After warning animal activists for years about Pacelle’s character and harmful policies, it is obviously gratifying to finally see him dragged kicking and screaming out of HSUS’s corporate suites.

“Sadly, this comes far too late for the women Pacelle has victimized, the donors he has deceived — and the millions of animals who now suffer as a result of his corrupt deal-making with the egg industry, meat retailers, SeaWorld, and other exploiters of animals. Animal advocates will be cleaning up Pacelle’s mess for years to come,” Miller predicted.

Merritt & Beth Clifton

Few observers would discount, however, the possibility that Pacelle will soon re-emerge in an executive position at another animal advocacy organization, or a for-profit organization doing related work, for instance lobbying or promoting non-meat food products.

Kitty Block is facing many immediate challenges and tough choices to reform the corporate culture. She requires the support and encouragement of those inside and outside the HSUS community. I wish her every possible success.

So, what a mess! I agree that leadership change may be good for HSUS..and Wayne might be guilty of a number of things..sexual Harrassment, overstepping his authority etc etc.
But can we please also talk about the incredible powerhouse this articulate committed man has been. I have seen him stand up to a room full of hunters, hobnob with politicians, and lobby to change hearts and minds.
In addition to your incredible journalistic commitment to animals, Wayne Pacelles weekly blog was one of my must read activities. He will be missed.

Ms. Brunson, unfortunately, has a valid point. I may or may not be alone in wondering who will be left standing after all the heads roll. I have it on good (male) authority that “every” man is guilty of this. Not being male myself, I couldn’t verify or refute that claim. But in my experience of life, I would say she’s probably not far off the mark.

Unfortunately, the fact that Wayne Pacelle no longer heads HSUS may not mean that HSUS will now show more progressive leadership on behalf of farmed animals and veganism. I worry that the organization could revert to its more traditional programs and attitudes.

HSUS never significantly included farmed animals and vegetarianism in its advocacy or policies until Wayne took over in the mid-2000s. The public face of HSUS through the 1980s and 1990s was Michael Fox, the veterinarian who reportedly purchased “humanely-raised” bulls for HSUS Board & stockholder dinners. One year at an AR conference I attended, he promoted “buffalo burgers” as “eco-burgers,” and he told the Summit for the Animals meeting one year that we need to keep eating pigs to save them from becoming extinct – just like the dairy cow researcher at the University of Maryland, Ray Strickland, used to argue against vegetarianism.

So, revolting as revelations about some HSUS officials have recently been, Wayne Pacelle and Paul Shapiro at least were vegans themselves, and they did bring farmed animals as individuals with feelings and intelligence, whom we do not need to eat to be healthy, into mainstream focus for the first time in HSUS history, and they did include vegan advocacy in their public outreach, though too cautiously, in my view.

As for sexual harassment of women and worse, while women rightly object to being treated like objects whose bodies may be physically assaulted and disrespected by men, this experience, magnified a trillion times over, is precisely what chickens and pigs and cows and all farmed animals, laboratory animals, circus animals, hunted animals, aquatic animals, and others endure around the clock at the hands of our species.

If we are outraged that men within our movement have disrespected their female colleagues physically and professionally, we had better stand up and be counted for our nonhuman animal victims for whom interspecies sexual assault and every form of intimate, repulsive violence perpetrated by our species against them and their bodies is their experience of being alive in the flesh. Veganism is not merely a superficial “food choice.” It is ethical activism on behalf of the most profoundly, helplessly victimized beings on the planet. Animal agriculture is now and always has been rooted in violating the sex organs, mating choices, and reproductive processes of helpless animals. We cannot claim to “care about” animals while obscenely consuming their muscles, their nursing mother’s milk and their eggs.

As animal advocates, we must trumpet these animals’ voices and be their Voice: “ME TOO!” This is the only ethical role for our MOUTH in their regard.

I know exactly what Ms. Davis is saying in her above post. I was very excited about the HSUS in Pacelle’s early days. Here was a group that was talking to Middle America, telling them that farmed animals matter. That caring about animals is more than just liking dogs and cats and hanging up a cute kitten calendar at work.

In those days I was writing an animal-related column for a small regional newspaper with an audience of primarily older working class people. I used the HSUS as a source more than any other group, and I adopted their folksy, basic-decency way of talking about animals. I felt that HSUS was helping make it “okay” to talk about, and care about, what goes on in factory farms.

Living in a state where nearly every other vehicle has an NRA sticker, I knew exactly what Pacelle was talking about when he said that he wanted to remake the HSUS to be an “NRA for the animals,” and I welcomed it.

Long before I knew about any of this awfulness, I became disillusioned with HSUS for selling out the animals as repeatedly described on this site. However, I still did hold out some hope that they could get back on course.